I want to be completely up front here – the Black Pepper Sweet Potato in this dish is completely inspired by the Black Pepper Tofu in Yotam Ottolenghi’s brilliant book Plenty (you can find the recipe on his site here)- go buy it, read it and cook many tasty things. We weren’t able to make the original dish as written for a number of reasons but mainly because Kenny hates tofu with a passion, and I was trying to completely avoid soy at the time. Instead I’ve gradually built it out to work with sweet potatoes. The coconut soup then grew from this as I wanted something that would counterbalance the spice and maybe had it’s own different level of complexity. So here you have a soup that’s infused with aromatics like lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and lime leaves but helps to cool the deep heat of the sweet potatoes.
This is a dish that will take a while to make as the soup needs to slowly infuse but up until you start the potatoes you won’t have much to do except enjoy the fragrances coming from your kitchen.
Try it – let me know what you think!
- Makes: Serves 4
Ingredients
For the Soup:
- 1 Tbsp Oil
- 1/2 Onion, finely chopped
- 20g Ginger, very finely shredded
- 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp Lemongrass Paste
- 5 Lime Leaves (dried)
- 3 dried Shitake Mushrooms (Optional but adds depth)
- 1 lime
- 1 Tbsp Vegan Fish Sauce
- 3 tins Coconut Milk (400g each)
- 1 ltr Vegetable Stock
For the Black Pepper Sweet Potatoes:
- 900g Sweet Potatoes, peeled & cut into bite-size chunks
- 60ml Coconut Oil
- 2 large Onions, quartered the sliced
- 4 Red Chillies, thinly sliced
- 10 Garlic Cloves, minced
- 15g Ginger, minced
- 3 Tbsp Corn flour
- Oil (for frying)
- 3 Tbsp kecap manis*
- 4 Tbsp Soy Sauce (see the allergy note below)
- 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 35g Black Peppercorns, coarsely crushed
Toppings:
- 2 heads of Pak Choi, thickly chopped
- 100g beansprouts
- 50g Spring Onions, cut into batons
- 225g Vermicelli Rice Noodles**
- fresh Coriander
- fresh Mint
- fresh Thai Basil
Directions
We’re going to start by prepping your soup so it can slowly infuse over a number of hours. Place a large heavy pan (a cast iron crock pot is ideal here) on a low heat and add your oil. Add your onion, ginger, and garlic and let them very slowly soften and sweat. Don’t let them brown and the heat shouldn’t be high enough for them to burn. This is probably going to take at least 20 minutes with your stirring occasionally. Once the onions are translucent and everything is soft, add your lemongrass paste and, turning the heat up a little, stir through. At this stage you can add the lime leave, dried mushrooms, the zest from half your lime, fish sauce, coconut milk, and stock. Bring to a gentle simmer and turn the heat right down low, cover with a lid tightly, and leave for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
Alternative method; If you’d like to use your slow cooker for this then feel free. Once you’ve softened your aromatics, place them and all the ingredients mentioned above into your slow cooker on low for about 7 hours.
Lightly poach your sweet potatoes for about 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how large you’ve cut them), or until they are almost cooked through and a fork will almost pierce them with ease. Strain and dust with the cornflour. Heat a wok until ripping hot (seriously, it should be shimmering with heat at least) and stir fry your sweet potato chunks in small batches with a touch of oil to brown them well. They should be browned and ever so slightly crunchy. Put these tasty nuggets to one side.
Wipe out your wok and heat up your coconut oil on a medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, and chillies and saute until completely soft – this should take at least 15 minutes. Now add your soy sauce, kecap manis, maple syrup, and crushed peppercorns. Stir through until mixed completely and now add back your sweet potato. Gently mix and stir until the sweet potato is completely heated through and cooked. Place to one side and wipe out your wok again.
Prepare your noodles according to the instructions on the pack – I normally cook mine in the soup itself but if yours need to be reheated in boiling water your may wish to cook them separately.
Place your wok on a high heat and very quickly stir fry the pack choi and spring onions until softened and just starting to brown but still bright green. Taste your soup, finish with the juice of your lime (as much as you feel it needs), and season if you really think it needs it. Now we’re plating so grab your biggest bowls! I like to start with a layer of noodles, follow with a layer of beansprouts, pak choi, and spring onions, add a healthy serving of soup, top with a heavy coating of ripped fresh herbs, and finally finish with a large spoonful of the black pepper sweet potatoes.
Enjoy!
Notes
* Kecap Manis is a sweetened, almost syrup like version of soy sauce that is popular in Indonesian cooking. I’ve yet to find a shop bought version that’s gluten free so I tend to make my own. Some varieties of this seasoning are heavily spiced with star anise, garlic or other aromatics but I tend to use quite a simple recipe. Bring to a boil equal quantities of your Soy Sauce substitute and brown sugar, then simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes until everything has dissolved and thickened. Place into a jar and chill until needed.
** These thin rice noodles work perfectly with this soup but each brand has different cooking instructions, check yours and prepare accordingly through if yours want to be soaked in warm water like mine then just throw them into the soup till ready – they’ll have so much more flavour that way!
Allergy Notes; I’m going to keep saying this – Soy Sauce is NOT gluten free as the brewing process contains wheat. A good gluten free option is Tamari which normally contains little to no gluten, is slightly less salty, and thicker than soy sauce. As always, check your brand to make sure you’ve not accidentally picked up one of the few brands which uses gluten. We use coconut aminos in our house, while not quite as rich as soy sauce, it’s both gluten free and soy free but different brands vary tremendously – you may have to look around before finding one that suits you.
